Weekly WIP: BMG Contra-Auguste

This week I have been neglectful of my weekly WIP. After each paint session in the last few weeks I would sit on the couch and write down my thoughts on the painting session just past. This week I painted in one long session and was too tired to write much when I was done.

Normally I like to render each colour in a single session but this time I painted the flesh, mask and hoodie all in one sitting.

Batman Miniature Game Contra-Auguste.

Despite completing so much I found I really struggled with my painting. Compared to the last miniature the flesh lacked contrast and I couldn’t get the blending smooth on the hoodie.

Here’s my philosophy on struggling to paint. Despite my intention to paint my Batman Miniature Game miniatures to the best of my abilities I am not going to grind to a halt over some rough patches, even if it means that I won’t achieve a perfect paint job.

One could argue that I should keep working until I achieved the results I am aiming for. This would be true if I was painting for a competition or a display piece but these are gaming miniatures. I’d rather take what I leaned from this model and apply it to the next. My skills improve but I end up with more painted miniatures. When it comes to painting the Joker I am going to spend extra effort even if I am having trouble.

Playing Batman

In addition to painting I also made it out to our weekly Batman Miniature Game night at Boutique FDB. I played a game pitting Batman and Nightwing vs. Bane and two Arkham inmates. This was my second game of BMG and my first using the Batsignal. I really like that objective; having something which generates 4 VP per turn without having to keep a miniature on it is great for Batman. It starts the game off and in the enemy’s deployment. At the end of a turn it generates 1 point for the opponent if it is off and 4 points for Batman if it is on.

Batman Miniature Game Nightwing vs. Goon

I kept Nightwing within batclaw distance of the Bat Signal and waited for anyone dumb enough to try to turn it back on. Rolling 6 dice on the attack while re-rolling misses and then wounding on a result of three or greater on a D6 means there are few baddies he won’t take down in one attack. I ended up winning the game mostly on the strength of my opponent under-valuing the Batsignal.

I hope to get some more painting in next week, as well as some more games of BMG. There’s a custom scenario being planned for Wednesday called Shifting Allegiances. It’s a multi-player brawl where each player controls one character. I should have some good pictures of that.

Have you ever had a paint job that just wouldn’t cooperate? If so, please leave a comment below. You can also find me on Twitter and Google+. Don’t forget to subscribe for more.